Lending Support To Caregivers

January 27, 2002|By Diane C. Lade Staff writer

Gary Barg is recognized as an expert in one of this decade's hot issues: caregiving.

He's appeared on national television and done the publicity circuit as the editor-in-chief of Today's Caregiver, based in Hollywood, the first nationally circulated magazine to take a consumer-friendly, stylish look at the tough topic. The author of a new book, The Fearless Caregiver, he's getting ready for his next Sharing Wisdom caregiver conference in Fort Lauderdale in April.

He was smart enough to snap up early the word "caregiver" for his online venture, Caregiver.com.

But Barg's not trained in health care, psychology or medicine. He's a graduate of the school of experience.

A former video producer, his new career started with the caregiving crash course he got six years ago when he came to North Miami Beach to help his mother care for her own aging parents.

"In my life, I've been looking for work that would totally encompass me, and I think this is it," said Barg, 45. "I want to teach people how to look for resources, to give them information in a way that's upbeat and supportive."

Today's Caregiver is an example of a good idea arriving at the right time.

Families and friends have been tending to their sick and dying loved ones for generations. But caregiving quickly became a national policy crisis when 78 million Baby Boomers realized health costs were going up while they and their parents were living longer, making everyone more likely to need long-term care.

Their voices became so strong that last year, Congress allocated $125 million toward developing new programs and enhancing existing ones for family caregivers, the first major increase in federal funding for seniors in 21 years.

Now even PBS is working on a caregiving series, similar to the 2000 Bill Moyers pieces on death and dying, called Thou Shalt Honor. It will air in September.

"As we know, anything that affects Baby Boomers in a big way becomes a big story," said Bonnie Lawrence, spokesperson for the not-for-profit Family Caregiver Alliance.

"[Barg] jumped in at a good time. According to our research, the caregivers' prime needs are for information, emotional support and respite."

Entrepreneurs have risen to the trend, clamoring for caregivers' attention at bookstores and on the Internet.

"There is money out there now, so everyone is trying to fit into the niche, whether they are qualified to do so or not," said Mary Barnes, executive director of the Alzheimer's Community Care Association in Palm Beach County. She advises consumers to carefully check out Web sites and organizations; some are little more than advertising outlets.

Barg seems to have built a reputation for information that is readable and reliable, even if it sticks to the basics. He also puts a human face on caregiving, sharing his stories and allowing other caregivers to do the same through first-person prose and poetry.

When the Florida Department of Elder Affairs held its annual statewide caregiver forum last October, they picked Barg as their keynote speaker.

"He has personal experience and seems to be a respected resource," said Tom Reimers, the department's director of self-care and community volunteer initiatives.

Reimers noticed many of the 130 caregivers at the Orlando forum were eager to share their thoughts, as Barg encouraged them to do.

"They have powerful stories. They come and you see the lines on their faces," Reimers said.

Barg, a communications graduate of Florida State University, was living in Atlanta in 1994 when his mother confessed during a phone conversation that caring for her elderly parents -- one with Alzheimer's disease and the other a stroke victim -- was wearing her out. So he came home for a one-month visit to North Miami Beach and, stunned by what he saw, never left.

He and his mother became a caregiving tag team, taking on a task that Monica Barg compares to "hanging onto Jell-O." And as Barg sat in doctors' offices and hospital rooms, as he sifted through piles of online and printed material, he began to notice something.

"We had magazines for bankers. We had magazines for plumbers. But we didn't have anything for caregivers," he said.

He launched Today's Caregiver in 1995, printing 5,000 slim give-away copies and hand-delivering them to hospitals, nursing homes and senior centers from the Florida Keys to Jupiter.

Now the magazine, which is $18 a year or $3.95 per copy, has a 50,000 circulation nationwide. It has featured interviews with celebrity caregivers and patients like Mariette Hartley and Robert Urich, along with practical articles about communicating with a dementia patient, caring for a chronically ill child, or finding a good adult day center.

What started as a family crisis has turned into a family affair. Brother Steven Barg quit his development job to become the chief operating officer of Caregiver Media Group, which includes the Caregiver.com site and copyrighted The Fearless Caregiver book and seminars. Mother Monica Barg is the magazine's executive editor and regular columnist.

"We interview celebrities to show no matter who you are, you can't escape caregiving. It's going to come get you," Monica Barg said.

For more information about Today's Caregiver, The Fearless Caregiver, and related seminars and conferences, call 800-829-2734 or visit www.Caregiver.com.

Staff writer Diane Lade can be reached at 954-356-4834 or at dlade@sun-sentinel.com.